Some embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to energy storage systems and more specifically to energy storage systems having manual service disconnect features.
Energy storage installations are becoming increasingly more prevalent, particularly for example, those used in combination with renewable energy resources to help balance energy supply and demand in grid, microgrid, and residential applications. Depending upon the application, these energy storage systems may range in capacities from a few kilowatt hours (kWh) to many megawatt hours (MWh). These systems typically contain many battery cells electrically connected to power conversion equipment and electronics all within one or more housings. Due to the high voltages and currents involved with these energy storage systems, manufacturers typically ship the systems in a deenergized and disassembled state. For example, manufacturers may ship uncharged batteries and electrical components, such as busbars, unassembled in the system to avoid electrical shocks or arc events during shipping and customer installation. In such cases, the manufacturers may ship the partially assembled energy storage systems to their customers and highly skilled workers would then be required to complete the installation in the field. This may involve a laborious installation process which may then need to be validated and/or certified according to various regulatory requirements. Moreover, once certified the batteries within the energy storage systems would need to be charged before the system could be made fully operational. This labor-intensive installation process at the customer site coupled with the operational delays due to the extra charging time required once assembled, translate to a higher total cost of ownership to the customer for such conventional energy storage systems. Additionally, once operational, conventional energy storage systems must be taken completely off-line to service the batteries or subsystems, which can cause revenue loss to the customer or even create energy distribution disturbances in the system.
It would therefore be desirable to provide energy storage systems and methods that can be made fully operational faster than conventional energy storage systems and require less downtime for repairs than conventional systems.